serendipitysbooks 's review for:

The Fortnight in September by R.C. Sherriff

4.0

hopeful lighthearted reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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The Fortnight in September is a modern classic that's charming, quiet, and quaint. It's ordinary but not mundane and surprisingly compelling for a book where very little happens. It follows the Stevens family - Mr and Mrs Stevens, Mary (20), Dick (17) and Eddie (11) on their annual holiday to the English seaside town of Bognor Regis, first visited by the parents on their honeymoon and returned to every year since. Very little happens plot wise - a brief first taste of romance for Mary, an awkward visit to the holiday home of one of Mr Steven's clients, the excitement of booking a slightly larger cabana with a balcony - but the Stevens do have a knack for making mountains out of molehills, agonising over and complicating  straightforward decisions and events. It took them several chapters just to make it to the train station. But this is not a criticism. I loved the way the Stevens and their foibles-  their small anxieties, their clinging to past habits, their love of a good schedule, their buttoned down slightly repressed nature - were revealed by these richly detailed, finely observed scenes. It would be easy to mock them but instead I found myself moved by their small, relatable dilemmas - Dick working in a job he isn't enjoying but which his father thinks is perfect, Mrs Stevens who doesn't really enjoy the beach but relishes the quiet hour she gets at the end of each day, just herself and her medicinal glass of port. Time and place are perfectly evoked, and the sense of melancholy and nostalgia (the guest house is no longer in its heyday, the children are growing and the oldest will soon be moving on to lives of their own) unparalleled.